WBI Founders

Our 19 Year Record

From June 1997 until the present, the Namies have led the first and only U.S. organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that combines help for individuals via our websites & over 10,000 consultations, telephone coaching, conducting & popularizing scientific research, authoring books, producing education DVDs, leading training for professionals-unions-employers, coordinating national legislative advocacy, and providing consulting solutions for organizations. We proudly helped create the U.S. Academy of Workplace Bullying, Mobbing & Abuse.

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Posts Tagged ‘locker room bullying’

The fifth annual Sports Law and Ethics Symposium hosted by the Santa Clara University (CA) Institute of Sports Law and Ethics will cover trending issues like changes in the NCAA, bullying, match-fixing, steroid use, and the opening of the new San Francisco 49ers stadium.

The event will be held at Benson Memorial Center on SCU’s campus Sept. 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This year’s Symposium will feature top speakers from the Bay Area and the nation, from morning keynote speaker and San Francisco 49ers President Paraag Marathe to featured lunchtime speaker, Travis Tygart, the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Among the topics to be discussed during the Symposium:

Bullying and a Culture of Performance: Positive Coaching Alliance CEO and founder Jim Thompson will lead a discussion with Dr. Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute and expert witness in the Jonathan Martin bullying case; Dr. William Pollack, Harvard Medical School associate clinical professor and author of Real Boys: Rescuing our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood; and Brandi Chastain, Olympic gold medal winner and member of World Cup champion U.S. soccer team.

The report by Ted Wells, the investigator in the NFL bullying scandal, introduced to the public for the first time two bully accomplices of Richie Incognito — Mike Pouncey and John Jerry. With Pouncey and Jerry, the harassment became same-race bullying, neither is white.

The New York Times did a long article profiling the two. Inside the article are statements of denial by friends of Pouncey and Jerry.

An unnamed friend commenting on the reactions of the two

they were upset at how the report characterized what they saw as harmless banter among friends and teammates. Neither had a sense that Martin was feeling bullied

Note how the bullies’ version of the target’s right to feel what he felt is given credibility.

A college coach saying

That’s part of the culture of playing football.

A former teammate saying

Pouncey was not the type to harass teammates.

The article ends with Pouncey’s “father figure” saying:

He’ll be back to playing football. That’s what he needs, and that’s what he’ll do.

Yes. Let’s just move on … so we can forget! Wrong! Lessons must be learned and changes made. If not, this is another example of bully apologists at work to restore the offenders’ image.

… as the world — in and out of sporting — chatters over the 144-page report commissioned by the NFL to explore allegations of bullying within the Miami Dolphins, I can’t help but sigh, shrug and accept the reality that — even with Richie Incognito’s warranted public flogging, even with Michael Sam’s announcement of his homosexuality, even with continued societal enlightenment — little will change.

As anyone who has spent time covering athletics will tell you, life in a male professional clubhouse is often akin to the worst fraternity on campus — minus the rules, regulations and governing bodies. There is a caste system, but it has little to do with the most intelligent and mature rising to the top. Here, the skinny backup quarterback who attended, say, Harvard or Northwestern gains no points for his pedigree. The strong debater or the Tolstoy fan isn’t considered a guide or guru.

No, this is the heartland of Richie Incognitos — large, loud, oafish dunderheads who would be branded bullies elsewhere but are here leaders. As the NFL report detailed, Incognito and Co. appeared to take a sadistic pleasure in torturing Jonathan Martin, a teammate considered to be weak.